Stafford Moor

Last autumn Stafford Moor supremo Andy Seery told me that he was holding a silver fish festival in March and I immediately jumped at the chance to fish. I had been really looking forward to the event since that day, the lakes are full of fantastic silvers with numerous weights to a ton recorded in the warmer months. With the winter that we are still experiencing weights would be much lower but anticipation was still high, with an average weight of 25lb per man expected over the four days we were assured some good fishing. I arrived on Monday and settled in to one of the onsite lodges which can only be described as luxurious, they are so comfortable I could quite honestly live in one permanently!

Nocturnal Lodge

Tuesday morning and I was awake very early in anticipation of a great days fishing, in fact I had woken quite a few times during the night, willing the clock to show a time nearer to the start of he festival. I wasn’t the only one excited about the match as Andy Dare and Chris Hancock were also up early; we were like kids in a sweet shop! The weather had not been kind to us, there had been a very hard frost and parts of the lakes were frozen with cat ice covering a few swims on one lake, not the ideal. There were 30 anglers fishing and we were to be split equally over Tanners and Woodpecker lakes, we would fish the lakes alternatively. Once the initial draw had taken place you would stay in your group of 15 for the remainder of the festival, each lake having two sections of 7 or 8 anglers. I had my dip in the bag of dreams and out came peg 3 on Woodpecker which didn’t mean a thing to me as I have never fished this lake before. Everybody told me it was a good area and I was in with a chance so I went to my peg full of confidence I was on an end peg as well.

Pleasure fishing?

On arrival at the peg I found that I had a peninsula protruding into the lake for about 13m on my left which effectively put me in a small lake on my own! It did look good to me but I felt a bit like I was pleasure fishing and to be honest I just didn’t feel part of the main event.  I could only just see the other anglers by peering through the undergrowth.

I quickly put a rig on so that I could have a good plumb around which would help me decide how to fish the swim. I found I had an even depth of around 6’ from reasonably close in, the peg as expected shallowed up when I went towards the spit of land to my left. I decided to concentrate two pole lines one at 13m line straight out in front of me and the other at 6m to my right. I also set up an edge rig but that line was very shallow and I never really expected it to produce as the water was virtually freezing.  Rigs were 4 x 16 Spro midwater floats, I felt I needed a reasonably heavy float as there was a strong and very cold wind blowing into my bank.  I also decided on a ground bait feeder which I was going to fish at about 25m in the lee of the wind. My ground bait was Yorkshire baits green Betaine and Swimstim a mix that I have a lot of faith in.

At the start I fed four balls on my long line and two on the 6m line each ball contained a fair amount of chopped worm. Starting on the feeder and I had about 5 casts in the opening 15 minutes and I must have come back with a nipped maggot on four occasions but I never saw a bite! I couldn’t understand it until I went on the pole and my first bite resulted in a pair of eyes! I had drawn in the nursery! This was a very frustrating day as I really struggled to catch. I could get a few blades before they backed which meant a change of line. I had three skimmers that went about a pound between them, after each one I thought they had arrived but was soon disappointed. I finished with 5lb 4oz for last in the match. It was close though as the guy on peg 6 had 5lb 6oz. I left the bank bitterly disappointed thinking I must have done it completely wrong as there had been some good weights recorded. But I honestly couldn’t believe I could have got t that wrong! Later in the week I found some solace in the fact that the swim came last every single day but it is not what is required on the first day of a four day festival! Oh man, has anybody got a spare drawing arm for sale?

That’s more like it!

Day two arrived and my section was on the prolific Tanners and I was overjoyed when peg 9 stuck to my hand. A noted and very good peg that is set out on a point which puts you in deeper water practically from your feet, the depth is very even out to 14.5m and after that I don’t know as I never plumbed any further! My rigs were the same as the previous day. My plan was to fish at 11.5m feeding 6 balls of ground bait and fish this swim until I felt the fish were backing off. I would then add another section and feed chopped worm and caster looking to catch anything that had backed off my initial area. I also had a line at an angle to me at 6m.

This match was very enjoyable it took an hour or so to really come alive but I caught a good stamp of skimmers on both lines catching on maggot and a lot on bits of worm. Going into the last 90 minutes and I felt my long line was slipping away so I followed my plan and fed a section further out. I managed to find a few more fish and enjoyed a good run up until the final whistle.  I finished with around 36lb which was a really nice looking net of fish and was top weight on my bank. Unfortunately my peg was in with the opposite bank and Steve Kedge recorded 44lb to win from end peg 36 and Harry Billing had 37lb to beat me by a pound from peg 28 catching a load of quality roach from down the edge. I really must try harder!  I actually felt I did as well as I could from my swim so have no complaints.

Dreading the draw bag

Day three and I found myself dreading going to the draw today as there was a chance that I could end up on that peg 3 again! My plan was to get there early and have first dip or wait until it had been drawn by some other unfortunate angler. In the end I was first in the bag and whilst I was very relieved to not get peg 3 I was disappointed to find peg 6 staring up at me! This was another that for some reason or another was very poor all week.

My plan today was to fish positive for big fish and it was really do or die. I set up similar rigs to the previous days with a .10 Xedion hook length and a size 16 T213 hook. I was going to fish worm and caster all day trying to target the bigger Tench and Bream that reside in the lake. The section each day had been the poorest with around 20lb winning, so I was content to look for around a dozen bites which is only two an hour in the six hour marathons they love at Stafford. There is not much I can write about this match as the plan didn’t work! I did manage a nice Tench and a reasonable skimmer but my other fish were on the small size and 6lb plus graced the weigh net at the end of the contest. I think I beat one angler and that was poor the poor guy on peg 3! I think we were unfortunate on this section as a cold easterly wind had been blowing onto this bank for quite a few days and the fish like some of the anglers had had quite enough of it!

My mate Chris Hancock won the section and he fished a very tidy match on peg 10 where he had some fish on the pole but had a good run of nice sized skimmers that he caught on the waggler in the shallow water near the island. I think he was on for a good weight but those nasty carp put in an appearance and spoilt that for him! He had 23lb which was enough to win the section by a country mile, well done buddy.

Where did that week go?

The last day arrived in what seemed to be one of the quickest weeks in living memory and we were back on Tanners. With no coin and no chance of making the frame a good peg was required today and I tried all that positive mental attitude bit as I put my hand into that bag of dreams! But it wasn’t to be as peg 6 was to be my temporary home for the day. It was in my opinion not a winning peg and I will admit to going to the peg with the wrong attitude. I felt I couldn’t win the section from here and that’s the way I fished without any real conviction. With the benefit of my old mate hindsight I really feel I could have taken the £65 for coming second in section or possibly won. Oh man this match was a lesson on sticking to your guns and trying harder!

I set up to fish at 13m on the pole and that got a nice helping of ground bait worm and casters. I expected it to take some time for the fish to settle on the feed from the experience I had from Wednesday. So I set up a 1.5 gram Cralusso Rocket Light which I was going to fish a foot off bottom as far out as I could loose feed casters. Within 10 minutes I had a stamp roach of 4 oz and some smaller ones followed but I was putting fish in the net which is the name of the game. Others round me were struggling including festival winner Pete Randall who was on unfancied peg 7 next to me. After an hour I was in front but either side of me started to catch on the pole so I switched and also found some fish on this line.

After 90 minutes my fish were backing off and foolishly I had stopped feeding the waggler line, I also realised that I had fed my pole line too close and should have fished at a minimum of 14.5m. I was forced to re feed on the longer line and it took quite awhile for the fish to come back. With 2 ½ hours remaining I felt I was falling behind and going nowhere, so I changed tactics completely and actually set up a ground bait feeder that I was going to concentrate on for the remainder of the match. I managed around six or seven skimmers from a line around 45m towards the middle of the lake but didn’t get any of the proper bream that I hoped for.

The section was won with 21lb and Pete came second with 18lb plus, which is just what he needed as the points gave him enough for the individual title. I had 12lb plus and as the scales bounced round to that total I knew that I had not fished well enough and if I had stuck to my original plan I could have achieved much more. It was certainly a lesson to me and just shows no matter how long you have been playing this game there are still lessons to be learnt.

To the victors….

Congratulations to Pete Randall on winning the inaugural Stafford Moor silver fish festival, a top bloke as well as star angler, he fished really well for the four days finishing with 6 points. Steve Kedge taking second place followed by Lee Farmer. Top rod from the Cornish Contingent was Andy Dare who finished fourth overall just beating Harry Billing.

A big thank you to Andy Seery and all at Stafford Moor for running the festival it was a great week at one of the top fisheries in the country. I really enjoyed the week and I am looking forward to fishing the event next year. I would just like to order some better pegs and warmer spring like weather for next year!