With the opening round of Kernow Match Groups three man winter league about to start I thought I better get myself around to Gwinear for another go at the Tuesday open. Overnight we had torrential rain and it was very windy with more rain forecast until around noon, the pegs were sorted out so that everybody was out of the wind.
Pegs were dotted around all over the place and there were several large areas of the lakes with no anglers. In my opinion it never works when it’s pegged like this, the carp follow the wind and those nearest the windward bank benefit, consequently those away from the hotspots generally suffer as the fish have too many safe havens to bolt to out of reach of the longest poles and feeders for that matter. That said I can understand the organisers wanting to make it comfortable for the competitors, there are not many who want strong winds driving cold rain into your face all day!
I had my dip and out came peg 18 which is on phase three and I was really pleased with the draw even though I was out of the wind. The lake has been re pegged recently and this used to be about peg 8, I drew it a couple of months ago and felt that I didn’t get the full potential out of it so was pleased to get another crack.
Simples
I was going to keep things fairly simple and fish on the deck in the deep water at 13m also a line at 6m on the slope plus two edge pegs at 13m, the reason I chose 13m was so that I could feed one of the edge pegs with a pole cup as I was fishing the deep water. All I did was fill my kinder cup feed my edge line that was in about 4′ of water and swing the rig out into the deep water swim where I pinged the odd pellet by catapult. My thinking was to keep putting a regular amount of feed in the same place and plunder the edge at about half time, a perfect plan!
It would be really nice one day if the perfect plan came together! Don’t get me wrong I caught fish on the 13m line but slowly and I was plagued with foul hooked fish! I just could not work it out. I fished off the deck and the float just stayed there motionless! Just touching the odd fish but more foul hooked, the only way I seemed to get less fish fouled was to put about 6” of line on the deck. I suppose the straight lead would have worked but so convinced was I that it was a pole day the lead rod was still in the van!
Wrong end, again!
My closest neighbour on peg 34 on the bank to my right was getting a few fish, we had roughly the same but to put it bluntly we were not at the races as the pegs at the other end of the lake were sacking! The worst thing about the peg I was on is that you can see every peg on the lake and you know that you are falling well behind and what’s more there is nothing that you can do about it! I ended up weighing 36lb which was roughly half of the winning weight. Shame about those foul hooked fish, if they had been in the mouth it would have been a lot closer. I was chatting to joint owner Chris Hancock about the problem and he told me he experienced the same thing on the peg a week or so ago!
Teams of three
It’s great when a new league starts everybody is full of confidence with expectations of coming out on top! My team SAS, like the others were keen to do well but it was going to be hard to beat the Gwinear team especially as the first two rounds were on their own water! The team name sorted itself out this year as it Skip McCabe, Andy Partridge and myself. Andy Partridge discussed the option of having his initial first but somehow Team ASS just didn’t have the same ring to it!
Dreaming
Since that Tuesday match I had been thinking about a drawing around peg 27 on phase three, there seemed to be loads of fish in that area. I couldn’t believe it when I actually drew the peg for myself! Andy was on peg 1 on phase one so he was in with a chance. Skip was peg 40 on phase two, again not a bad area but he was up against it with some good anglers on very good pegs in his section. I got to my peg and was a little disappointed to find that I probably had the windiest corner in Cornwall; it was really blowing a hooley! There really is no pleasing some people!
I thought that I would be able to handle the long pole using a spray bar and managed to plumb ok at 16m on the bar. I also set up a line for 6m and an edge rig down to my right into the windy corner.
Duck!
The match started and I went out on the long pole but it was impossible! Strange how you somehow can manage it when plumbing but take that weight off and start fishing and it’s a different story! The pole was like the proverbial banana, it is a good job that no one was on the peg to my right or I would have decapitated them as I was swung around on my box by the force of the wind! Out onto the shorter line and even that was impossible to hold, John Hethrington was on the feeder and I saw him have a couple and that seemed like the best option to me. I went out with an 8mm pellet and managed three quick carp but the bites just stopped.
I tried the pole but was really struggling plus it was made worst by watching eventual match winner Chris Hancock who was opposite me and slightly to the left bagging in calm water, it was as if he was in a different country in his cosy little corner. Come to think of it the Gwinear three all drew corner pegs all out of the wind, amazing as it is a random draw! What chance do we have with a set of draw bags like that to contend with! Word has it they are approaching a corner shop for sponsorship.
Going into the last 90 minutes and I was in no doubt I was last in section, I was back on the feeder hoping the tip would go round but it remained stationary. I took off the line clip and cast about 5 metres further with a change of bait to corn and the tip just didn’t stop going around and I had quite a few small carp eventually finishing with around 48 lb Chris Hancock easily won the section and the match with 87lb I was hoping to have got out of jail but unfortunately I was beaten by two others John Hethrington and Roger Cannock who both had a couple of pounds more than me, I wish I had taken that clip off 10 minutes earlier, mind if I had started there I may have pushed Chris!
Andy Partridge saved the day for us by winning his section with around 50lb and Skip had over 50lb for third in his which helped us to third team on the day. We have to pull our finger out now we are already 5 points off the pace, mind there was some choice words from Team Tourettes when they realised they were 13 points off the leaders!
Teams Overall Points Weight Team Gwinear 4 194.04 Team Billings 7 152.2 Team SAS 9 147.10 Team White Acres 13 104.14 Team Cockney Raiders 15 90.08 Team Tourettes 17 96.14
Wednesday Mawgan Porth
With a few booking in at Mawgan Porth courtesy of the half term I decided to give it a go as I had not been there for what seemed like months. I was really looking forward to a good match. When I arrived I was told that the lake was very clear especially in the shallower water swims between peg 6 and 9 and also peg 42 on the point of the island. I made a mental note to avoid those pegs when it came to my turn to have a dip in the bag of dreams. I pulled out bridge peg 9 and I wasn’t that impressed! Nothing I could do about it though as I wandered round to my peg moaning about my drawing skills.
The rumour was correct and I could see the bottom a couple of metres from the bank and even pick out rocks on the bottom about 5 metres out, I have to say I wasn’t full of confidence. I was even less confident when I asked Harry Billing what it was like on his side of the lake ‘Looks fine was the reply, waters coloured’!
I am not sure but there seemed to be a lot more weed around than on my last visit and I figured if I sat more to the right hand side of my platform and fished out in front of me slightly to my right at 6m I would be next to the weed bed, this I figured would give me a greater area to draw fish and also I had the benefit of fishing next to cover which in the clear water I thought was going to be paramount as no doubt the fish would be hiding in the weed..
I set up four rigs two duplicates to fish on the deck and two to fish shallower which would also be suitable for down the edge in case I needed to have a go there. This swim is fairly shallow at 3′ and my shallow rigs were made up to around half that depth. Bait wise I had 3 pints of caster and some hemp which I thought was going to be the best bait. I also had some 4mm fishery feed pellets and some Yorkshire Bait 4mm garlic pellets.
Feeding Time
At the start I cupped some hemp and casters next to the weed at 6m and started with a double shell on the hook. There were no early indications for me but anglers were starting to catch, peg 41 started well and I saw Harry have a couple of early fish. After around 10 minutes I saw a plume of silt rising and knew that was the signal that some carp had found my feed, I had a bite and was pleased to net a 2lb fish. It seemed strange hooking the fish and been able to see it immediately as I played it towards the net, normally the water is so coloured you don’t see the fish until it is at the net. I started to get a few, not fast and furious but I wasn’t that worried as they were of good stamp. Before long I noticed that I couldn’t see the fish as clearly when I was playing them, there must have been a few fish now in my swim.
I caught steady for a couple of hours on caster but never felt like I was in charge and I decided to change to pellet feeding 4mm and fishing the soft garlic 4mm pellet on the hook, am I glad I did! The swim was transformed and the catch rate improved no end with a good stamp of fish as well. It was difficult getting the fish to stay at one depth as they came off the bottom to intercept the loose feed and unfortunately a few were foul hooked and lost but it was a great match. I actually lost a couple of fish that seemed to be hooked correctly and they were very big by Mawgan Porth standard over 5lb they just charged off into the weed as the water was clear I could see them easily, Oh man, I would have loved to have known the size of the fish, shame I couldn’t retrieve them from the weed.
Pace setter
Harry on peg 36 was first to weigh and he set the pace with just short of 156lb, I knew it was going to be close between us as I had managed to land 120 fish and some of them were a good stamp. The scales arrived and the contents of my first net weighed over 80lb when I pulled the next net out I knew I had overtaken Harry just by feel. The fish totalled 179lb.7oz I had to wait awhile for the result as word was that John Price on peg 46 had caught well and also had a good weight. He just managed to shade Harry with an impressive 158lb. It was another great match on a fantastic little fishery.
1st Stewart Lister SPRO peg 9, 179lb 7ozs 2nd John Price peg 46, 158lb – 3ozs 3rd Harry Billing Mosella Garbolino peg 36, 155lb – 14ozs 4th Mark Whitting peg 41, with 96lb – 4ozs 5th Glin Nelson peg 6, 70lb – 6ozs
6th ‘Wrong Lake’ KMG peg 38 66lb – 8oz
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Good to have you back writing your blog Stuart
Nice one Stu……..very generous of Harry to drop to a third……season of good will approaching. Snowing here …….but canal fishing tomorrow…….3-5 metres deep !! Keep these great reports coming in …….i need to get thro’ the winter here.
hope the missus is well
cheers
Why on earth did you fish caster and hemp on a water full of smallish carp…
I was really surprised that your catch rate went through the roof when you switched to pellet, who’d have thought it lmao
Thanks for your coments guys they are appreciated.
Thommo, there was life before pellets! lol. The reason I started on caster is that it is a brilliant bait for carp. The fish at Mawgan Porth have seen it all even though they are small – I know from experience that from late summer and throughout winter caster can out fish pellet. I spoke with Harry Billing after the match and he was convinced caster was better in his swim. Give them a try sometime you may be surprised yourself.
wasnt getting at you, just id have thought MP would be out and out pellet.
Thommo no problem, didn’t think you were having a go – hope I did not come over that way in my reply.
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